Hull City boss Nigel Pearson wished the Canaries luck in their promotion challenge – but believed his side had enough chances to have beaten them at the KC Stadium.

A goal from 37-year-old substitute Nick Barmby earned the Tigers a point and kept them among the Championship play-off contenders but they missed the chance to become the first team to double Norwich since Paul Lambert became manager.

Said Pearson: 'They're a good side. But what I would say is credit to our players for making them look pretty ordinary in the first half.

'I can't remember them creating a chance and yet they went ahead from a set play.

'When you consider the way they have played this season, we've got a respect for them.

'Not only are they a good side but they've kept the momentum from last season. They appear to have a very good spirit among the group and that counts for an awful lot but on top of that you always need the quality to win games.

'Today for us it was about trying to minimise their impact on the game. We always felt we could make chances against them – we did but we didn't take them.

'Although we looked like we could have scored again, they are very dangerous. It's no surprise that they have scored so many goals.

'As far as I'm concerned, we did a really good job of stifling them and still created enough chances.'

Pearson applauded both teams for going for victory.

He said: 'Both sides tried to win the game. It was an open last 15 minutes. If you go too open against Norwich, as you can see this season, they've scored a lot of goals late in games.

'They are very creative and they've got a number of very good players.

'We're disappointed we didn't win it, and we had our moments when we could have won it, but they probably feel the same way as well.

'We won at their place earlier in the season and they will wonder how they didn't get anything from that game. Football is like that – I would think on the balance of it over the two games they would think they deserved a little bit more, but they're still in a really good position and good luck to them.'

Pearson was unconvinced by Norwich's claims for a second-half penalty when Andy Dawson appeared to pull Russell Martin back.

'Unless it is a clear-cut one, it depends which side of the fence you sit whether you think it's a penalty or not,' he said.